Finally got back to working on the car, and installed all the subassemblies back into the casing. Everything went in really smoothly and it's amazing how nicely everything fits together. Very slick. I fixed the clutch pack clearance issue by adding an extra steel on the bottom of the stack of frictions and steels. That brought it to 0.100", which is right in the middle of the factory specs.

We called it a day when we got as far as installing the valve body, because we were having problems getting the parking rod from the valve body into the parking sprag in the extension housing. Munroe shows it as being disconnected from the valve body, then re-attached afterwards, while the YouTube series from Southwest shows it being installed before the extension housing is in place. My extension housing is already in place...

So 4 questions:

1. Can the valve body be installed with the extension housing in place without removing the parking rod and installing it on it's own first? If so, how?

2. The band adjust screws are square. I wasn't able to find a socket that fit them, so I adjusted 'by feel' using a regular wrench. Is there a special socket for this screw so that I can use a torque wrench? I'd rather get it right now, even though they can be adjusted later.

3. End play on the input side - I started with the thickest fibre washer on the stator when I installed the oil pump, but when we screwed the oil pump in and tried to measure end play (by pulling/pushing on the input shaft with the casing lying on the bench) it wouldn't budge. Thinking it might simply be too tight, we removed the oil pump and replaced the fibre washer with a thinner one. This time we go just a tiny bit of movement, but it's still more or less immovable. I'm thinking that we're doing this wrong, and there must be a better and/or easier way to measure end play. There isn't a whole lot of metal to grab onto, everything is oily and slippery, and there is a lot of weight in the casing on the input shaft. Can anyone give a few pointers here? I want to get it right the first time!

4. I've asked several sources where I can find the little rubber grommets that fit in the shift linkage between the shifter in the car and the valve body gear selector, but no one seems to carry them. Does anyone here know where I might find them?

The plan is that next time I visit the car, we will actually manage to put the transmission back in the car and drive it out of the shop. Looking forward to that day!